A New Magic
by StarryFluff
Summary: Sarah Starell is lonely and friendless in a boarding school halfway around the world from home. She feels like she's invisible and different from everyone eles. However, soon she discovers that that is the least of her problems...
1. Decisions, Decisions

**Muggles, Hogwarts, etc. all belong to JKR, not me. If they did belong to me I'd be famous right now, with a million dollars, but they don't belong to me, so I'm not rich or famous… yet.**

My mother was a muggle. My father was a wizard. My mother has always known that my dad was a wizard, though; her little sister was a witch. She'd known about wizards since she was a little girl, though I don't think she planned on marrying one. My sister, Anna and I grew up in the wizarding world.

My mother sort of pretended she was a squib, all of her friends were witches and my sister and I went to an elementary school for the children of wizards and witches. You wouldn't necessarily develop magical abilities once you graduated, and we didn't learn any magic there, it was simply a way to keep the wizarding children separate from muggles. It made sense too, I mean, imagine a wizarding child inviting a muggle friend home, after school. How do you think the muggle might react when his friend's mom pointed an old stick at the dirty dishes and they began washing themselves?

Anyway, we'd been raised as witches, so I was excited, but not surprised when, at the end of elementary school, I received an official looking letter by owl post. However, I was surprised when I'd opened the letter and found it was an invitation to Hogwarts, the most famous wizarding school in the world. I'd heard a while back that the school had begun to accept students from other countries, but I'd never guessed that I might get in.

I was, I'll admit, considered a "smart kid" in my class, but you could get all A's and still end up going to a public school of magic. I'd always hoped to go to the Susan B. Anthony School for young witches and wizards. Most people have no idea that the famous women's suffragist was really a witch. Anyway, the Susan B. Anthony was a prominent boarding school in Boston. It was close enough that I could come home on the weekends and I'd still be able to see all of my old friends. Hogwarts, on the other hand, was quite a different matter.

My Grandpa Colbee had gone to Hogwarts, so I guess that counted for something, but he'd lived in England his whole life. I was American. That made all the difference in the world. Because of that, I felt I had the right to be proud. I'd earned my acceptance into the finest school in the world.

My parents were both at work, so I lazed around the house, bragging to my sister until they got home.

"Mom!" I cried as she opened the door, "Mom, look!" I waved the thick orange-ish envelope in her face. I was careful to hold it at just the right angle so that the light caught the shiny emerald green ink. My mother gasped and dropped all her bags on the floor.

"Oh Sarah! Is it an acceptance letter? What school, honey? What school? Did you get Susan B. Anthony!" She was almost more excited than me.

"Nope! Even better!" I exclaimed, still waving the envelope, but not quite ready to hand it over yet.

"Better? What's better? I thought you wanted to go to the Susan B. Anthony." She was confused now, again she reached for the envelope, but I pulled it away.

I smiled and took out the letter. "Dear Miss Starrel, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted Hogwarts School of Witchcaft and Wizardry!" I read.

My mother looked confused, instead of happy. "But, isn't that…" she began.

"Yes mom! It's in England! Apparently they've gone international, but it's supposed to be the best school in the world! And I doubt they've accepted that many Americans. This is the chance of a lifetime! It's incredible!" I put as much enthusiasm on the words as possible. I was trying to erase her frown.

"I always thought you had your heart set on…"

"Yes mom." I rolled my eyes, "But that's because I never even imagined that I could go to Hogwarts!"

"Well the Susan B. Anthony School, isn't that an awfully good school too?"

"Yes mom, but Hogwarts is on a completely different level! Tell them you went to Hogwarts and all the best American colleges will come running!"

"I suppose…" she said nervously.

"Well, what's wrong with it mom? Aren't you happy? This is the best school in the world we're talking about!"

"I know…" she said, "I'm so proud of you, it's just that, well, you'll be gone almost all the time. We'll never see you. Just, think about it. You may still be accepted to other schools. Wait and see. This is a choice that will affect the rest of your life."

"That's exactly it! I've been accepted at Hogwarts! If I go there it will affect the rest of my life! In a good way!"

"I'm not saying no, I'm just saying, wait before you make a decision. Take some time to think."

"Alright…" I sighed sulkily. I would never admit it, but what my mom had said was making me have second thoughts. It was true. If I went to England, I really would barely ever see my family. Still… This was Hogwarts.

My father's reaction was much more preferable. He, being a wizard, with a father who went to Hogwarts was very proud and excited. Once my mother had spoken with him, his enthusiasm deflated slightly, but he was still eager for me to go. He knew and understood what an opportunity this was.

As the days rolled by, I got three more acceptance letters. One was from the Susan B. Anthony. The others were both to schools I really had no interest in. On the last day before we left for our vacation to Disney World, I once again confronted my mother abut Hogwarts.

"Really, Mom, I've made up my mind. I've had plenty of time to think and I-"

"Look, I think you should wait a little longer. At least until we get back from Florida, ok?"

I nodded, but I really didn't want to wait. The problem was, I was afraid that I might actually change my mind if I thought any longer. I had to go to Hogwarts, I knew I had to, but I thought about how homesick I had been just at summer camp, and I started to wonder if maybe this wasn't a good idea after all…


	2. One Last Time

The summer was slipping by quickly. All too soon, our vacation was over and once again I was faced with the choice of what school I would attend for the next seven years. Slowly, I reread my acceptance letters. Destiny had already made the choice for me, I knew. The second I received the letter from Hogwarts my fate had been sealed. How could one turn down acceptance into a school like that?

With more determination than ever, I set out to find my mother and explain to her the choice I had made.

"Mom?" I called. "Mom? I've made up my mind. I know that I've always wanted to go to the Susan B. Anthony School, but… Well, you've got to understand, Hogwarts is the-"

"I know," sighed Christine. "The best school in the world. I just… Well, I'm so proud. And I realize that you can't turn down an opportunity like this. But, I'll miss you so much!"

"I'll miss you too, mom. So much. Thanks for understanding."

So, an afternoon was set aside for a shopping trip. After watching a thrilling quidditch match between Massachusetts's Fitchburg Finches and the New York Sky Scrapers, we set off to pick up everything on the list. The Finches had had a winning streak for quite a few years now and the ever growing rivalry between the top teams, New York and Massachusetts, made every game they played against one another even more thrilling.

I was in high spirits after Massachusetts's amazing seeker, Maximus Brankovitch III, or "Vitchy" as he was fondly called by fans, came through once again, beating New York. So off we went to Willow Park, the largest fully magical city in the area. Willow Park was just outside of Boston. A plain building with a sign reading 'Snartch, Harold & Co' was the hiding place of the city.

We entered the clean, but bleak and dreary place. No one in their right minds would go in here, unless of course, they knew about Willow Park. Through a door in the back with an "Employees Only" sign on it was a small room with several cluttered desks and an oddly large brick fireplace, looking quite out of place.

For years the wizards of the area had complained about poor security, but still the gate to Willow Park was as accessible as always. With a whisper of the wizard's last name, assuming that he or she was registered, the bricks would open to the long, paved, Bay Street of Willow Park.

After saying "Starell, three guests," clearly but quietly, we entered and began our search for the items on my list. First up was the bookstore, I'd been to Willow Park several times before, but it never failed to astound me. Everywhere there were people. All of them were hurrying about their own business, just like in any city, but all of them were wizards.

Magic was everywhere, a young witch with a tight black bun called out to my moter,

"Smell!" she called, waving a steaming bottle. Business men and women swept through, calmly discussing smugglers with secret cauldron compartments, illegally imported potions, spells that should not be practiced near water and so on.

Everywhere there were families, just like mine. It was strange, but somehow I felt more secure having been reminded how many other magical people there were.

We hurried down the street, looking for Porter's Pages, the bookstore. On the way we passed Feathers, Papyrus and Polka Dots, a stationary store. We had to stop in, parchment in every shade and hue lined the walls. Shelves were filled with extravagantly decorated journals and stationary sets. Boxes of fancy plumed quills and pens lay everywhere.

I bought several new rolls of parchment and three, plain, new quills. I also bought a set of stationary to write home on and a very fancy automatic quill that didn't need to be periodically dipped into ink.

Finally, my mother managed to drag Anna and me away and we continued our search for school things. Porter's Pages was very friendly with my school. They had funded book fairs and set up a program where students could sign up to review books for them. I had quickly joined and gotten to know most of Porter's employees.

Carol, the witch behind the desk when we entered immediately came to greet us. "Picking up books for school, are you? Where are you going next year? Have you decided?" She asked. "We've got the lists of books you need for the Susan B. Anthony and for the Spelladry here. We've got Riverside Academy too, though it's a bit of a hike from here. I think we also have the lists for the area's public schools… Anyway, what do you need?"

"Um, well actually…" I replied, "I've been accepted at a, well a school overseas…"

"Sarah's going to Hogwarts!" my mom informed, proudly. I guess she'd just sort of needed time to think about. Now I could hear the pride in her voice, and she flashed me a smile as she explained to Carol about my decision.

Carol was obviously surprised. "Oh! Well, congratulations!" she exclaimed, "What books will you be needing then?" she asked, beaming.

I handed her my list and she bustled about, piling all the necessary books into a heap on the front counter.

"Standard Book of Spells," she muttered, "We've got that… And, oh a classic, A History of Magic, Oh yes, yes of course, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Oh, transfiguration… hmmm… We might have that in the back…"

Finally when she seemed to have acquired all the necessary books, she came back and began loading them all into bags.

"Well, I couldn't find this one. You may have to order it… I'm not sure if we can get it in the U.S., but if I find out how to get it, I'll call you."

"Thanks," I said, lifting the heavy bags and checking to see which book she was referring to. Preparing Yourself: A Guide to Dark Magic. Strange, I reread the title. Was it referring to preparing yourself against dark magic, or preparing yourself to do dark magic?

"Come on!" my mother called, "We're off to find robes next!" I hurried after her, forgetting about the book for now.

As we hurried toward Zurdle, the robe place, I caught site of one of my friends. "Veruna!" I called, "Veruna!" she turned and smiled.

"Hi Sarah!" Veruna was Nepali and she was the only other in my group of friends who would not be going to a nearby school. She was going to a very good school in Nepal called something like the Dparry Hgware. At least, that was what the name of the school sounded like to me when she said it. I'd tried to repeat the sound, but I couldn't.

"So, where're you going for school next year?" she asked.

"Well, actually, I'm going to Hogwarts, in England." I hadn't yet told any of my friends this yet, I wasn't sure how they'd react. I wasn't nervous about telling Veruna, though. She was going overseas too, so I knew she wouldn't be too upset.

"Wow! Congratulations!" she said.

"Well, the um, Par- Parra Gwarha is a pretty good school too, right?" Veruna laughed,

"You can't even say it! How would you know if it was a good school?"

"Well I'm sure it is, if you're going to it!" Veruna was at the top of our class, if there was anyone who I knew would get into a good school, Veruna was sure to be it.

"Where are you headed next?" she asked,

"I'm going to Zurdle for robes. You?"

"Frindle and Snize, you know, potion stuff… Nepal is big on potions. Do you want to meet at the Chocolate Café for sundaes afterward? I just saw Camille… I can tell her to come too,"

"That sounds great, I'll see you there, er… Three-ish?" she nodded, and we both set off on our various shopping quests to find potions and robes, once again. Camille, Veruna and I, along with our other friend, Sylvia, were four of the best friends possible. We always did everything together. My heart ached as I thought about leaving again. I wouldn't know a single person at Hogwarts…

We all had plenty of other friends too, Rebecca, Jackie, Carmen, Alycia… Shannon, whom I'd seen today, but Veruna, Sylvia, Camille and I were inseparable. All of us were headed to different schools. I wasn't sure where Sylvia was going, but I knew Camille would go to Spelladry. They didn't know yet where I was going and I was a little nervous about telling them.

After purchasing several plain, black, uniform robes, a hat, a cloak, dragon hide gloves, and an adorable pair of jeans with a matching denim cloak to go with them (I'd had to beg my mother for the last), we set out for potion ingredients and a cauldron, which we found at Frindle and Snize. I then left to find the Chocolate Café and join Veruna and Camille. As I wandered down the street, I bumped into Sylvia, carrying several bags. After I helped her pick them up, I told her about our plans at the Chocolate Café. I arranged with my mother to meet her at Phoenix and Dragon for a wand afterward.

Together we set out toward Pewter Road to find the Chocolate Café. We quickly found the sunny outdoor table where Camille and Veruna sat and went in to purchase our ice cream. It seemed as though fate had chosen to unite us one last time, before we finally split apart, perhaps forever.

**Did anyone catch the bit about New York and Massachusetts? Being an avid Red Sox fan, (therefore also very anti-Yankees) I couldn't resist slipping that in, lol, please forgive me! **

**Anyway, please review, everyone! **


	3. No Goodbyes and Powerful Sticks

As we all sat down, I smiled around at my three best friends. It was funny; their sundaes almost seemed to reflect their personalities. Sylvia's was vanilla, sweet, and always there for you, and also the new 'chocolate tango', original, creative, and fun.

Camille's had coffee, maybe unpopular, but still good, and chocolate, honest and friendly. Her flavors together formed a bittersweet combination, just like her personality. She had nuts, but no cherry on top. She was who she was and she didn't care what other people thought.

Veruna's was cookie dough with rainbow sprinkles and jellybeans on top. Really sweet and fun, but a little out of the ordinary and crazy. I looked down at my own ice cream. Oreo and black raspberry, a strange combination, yes, but very good. Lots of whipped cream and hot fudge, too. What did this say about me?

"Have you all decided where you're going for school?" Sylvia was asking.

"Well, you already know, I'm going to Pari Ghar…" Veruna said.

"Runa!" moaned Camille, "Don't remind us! We're trying to actually enjoy your company while your still here,"

"Fine, where are you going to school?" Veruna said huffily.

"Spelladry… You guys know that, Runa and I have told you where we're going, now let's here about you two, Sylvia? Sarah?"

Sylvia was smiling smugly. For a second a tiny flame of hope kindled in me that she might have been accepted at Hogwarts as well. She looked happy enough and proud enough to have been. "Actually, I was accepted at the Susan B. Anthony, apparently a late spot opened up… I guess someone turned down their acceptance or something… Well, that's where you're going too, isn't it Sarah?" she asked, "You've always wanted to go there and you looked so proud of yourself today, but I won't ruin your fun. Go ahead, tell everyone that you were better than me and got your acceptance letter early with the rest of them, instead of after someone dropped out!" Sylvia kidded, punching my arm lightly.

"Hey, Runa, looks like we'll be needing an ice pack to help with the swelling again!" Camille teased.

"Swelling?" Veruna said blankly.

"Her head, Veruna," Sylvia clarified.

I wasn't listening though. Suddenly, I felt miserable. Veruna was glancing around, looking at me pointedly. She was wondering why I wasn't telling the others about Hogwarts.

"Sarah?" she asked, sounding worried.

I took a deep breath, "Um, actually, I'm, well, I'm not going to Susan B. Anthony…"

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know, honest, I'm sorry Sarah, I just thought that, well, you know," Sylvia said, looking very embarrassed.

"No, I got an acceptance letter but I…" Now everyone was staring at me. I hadn't meant to say that. Why did I always have to spoil everyone else's happiness? Sylvia had gotten into Susan B. Anthony after I refused, but she didn't have to know that. I was way overconfident. Why couldn't I stop bragging even when I was in utter misery?

Well, the harm was done. There was nothing I could do but tell the truth. "I'm going to a different school. Overseas, I got accepted at a pretty good school and I couldn't turn it down," Veruna smiled encouragingly.

"What school?" Camille asked, sounding confused. "Overseas? Like, in a different country?"

"You turned down Susan B. Anthony?" asked Sylvia, looking shocked.

"Well, yeah I just…" I trailed off. I couldn't stand looking at them. They were all staring at me. Camille looked skeptical, Sylvia, disappointed and confused and Veruna looked worried.

"Sarah! Tell them what school!" Veruna said, with a half-hearted laugh. Her lame attempt to lighten the atmosphere fizzled.

"Hogwarts," I said miserably. Sylvia and Camille gaped at each other, looking completely shocked.

"Like, Hogwarts? Like, in England?" Camille asked. I nodded.

"Sarah, that's… that's, awesome!" Sylvia said, always there for me.

"No it isn't!" Camille exclaimed, "That's horrible! We'll never see you or Veruna again!"

Veruna glanced at me, looking nervous. Sylvia seemed to take control of herself. She glared at Camille. "That's really great. Congratulations, really, both of you." Camille sat grumpily, eyeing all of us and doing her best to look abandoned and ignored.

Sylvia, glancing her way, continued, "I mean of course, we'll really miss both of you, but, it's really amazing that you both got into such good schools."

Veruna smiled, "You know, you have to be pretty good to get into the Susan B. Anthony and Spelladry too. Pari Ghar might be Nepal's best school, but it's nothing like either of those. And it's definitely not nearly as hard to get into as Hogwarts."

"Thanks…" I said, "Um, I just…" I half-smiled. My friends. _My _friends. I couldn't really put what I was feeling into words. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach as I thought about Hogwarts. Would I have anyone who was even close to what friends like these were to me?

"I'll miss you guys, so damn much!" I exclaimed finally. Everyone, even Camille, smiled again. We all laughed and chatted lightly after that, no one dared bring up the delicate subject of goodbye just yet.

Finally after all of us had been finished with our sundaes for at least ten minutes, Veruna hesitantly came back to this subject. "Well, I'm leaving in a week, so I'm not sure if…"

"Look, let's not say goodbye, not just yet," Sylvia said. "We can give hugs all around, but no goodbyes and no crying, ok? Christmas break will come before we know it. And we'll all exchange owls all the time, agreed?"

Everyone looked relieved. "Agreed." Camille nodded, deciding for everyone.

Fifteen minutes later, I met my mother outside of the Phoenix and Dragon wand store. I was nervous and excited. Despite our agreement not to say goodbye yet, leaving my friends for what I knew would be the last time in a while left a bad taste in my mouth. Still, I wanted to be fully prepared for finding my wand. I tried to forget about Camille's face, Sylvia's too-tight embrace and Veruna's eyes, shiny with tears, for now.

A young woman with curly red hair came to greet us. Quickly she whipped out a measuring tape and set it off measuring me, before she got down to business, explaining the basic principles of a wand.

"There's phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, unicorn hair… And the different woods can tell you different things, there's willow, that's often quite nice for charms…Oh and rosewood, that's nice for healing and-"

I stopped listening at this point. I was so excited, that I could barely concentrate. Glancing at the tape measurer, which was now measuring the width of my right pinky, the woman slowly began to take boxes from back cupboards and place them on the counter.

My mother watched, smiling. She had never had a wand, I realized, she knew no more about what was going on then I did.

"Ah, yes, nine and a half inches! Dragon heartstring, mahogany!" the woman cried, thrusting a wand into my hand. I glanced skeptically at the wand… What was supposed to happen? It looked so plain, so simple… "Go ahead!" the woman cried, "Give it a wave!" I sucked in a deep breath and held the stick… wand, a bit tighter. I flicked it upwards and drew a circle in the air.

"No, no!" the woman cried, snatching it back. I quickly relinquished the wand. "Too short! Nine inches was too short!" she exclaimed, quickly handing me another. "Eleven inches. Unicorn hair, yew!" she exclaimed. This too I waved about, still somewhat unsure that a little stick like this could produce the magic I saw everyday. Again nothing happened and she grabbed it back, murmuring something about flexibility before thrusting another wand at me. "This is the one! Willow! Ten and a half, phoenix feather!"

The way she announced the make-ups of the various wands, you'd think it was something I should be thrilled about, but always, before I'd had a chance to really see for myself the wonders of the wand, she snatched it away and forced another upon me.

After four more unsuccessful tries, (each one beginning with a promise that it was "the one") Eleanor, as I learned the woman's name was, sat back thoughtfully, considering me with strange, grayish eyes. "Hmm… Longer, something more… powerful…" she murmured, then suddenly she leaped to her feet, making me jump.

"This!" she cried, "This! This is the one! Twelve inches, unicorn tail hair, black palm!" Again, she flung a wand at me. Once again, I took it and inspected it suspiciously. It was light in my hand, and the handle was smooth, but not slippery. The wand was grayish-black with yellow streaks through it. I was far from convinced that this was the one, but I wrapped my fingers around it, grasping it tightly. Suddenly, a warm humming feeling spread through my fingers and up my arm. Hand and wand connected and I swished the wand, an elegant stream of violet sparks erupted from the end.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Eleanor exclaimed, "That's the one! That's it!" she smiled and gently took it from me, although, this time, I was a bit more reluctant to give it back. She carefully wrapped it and handed it to me.

"Now, be careful. Palm is powerful, very powerful… No saying what a wand like that could do. Take good care of it. This one has the tail hair from the lead mare of the unicorn herd. She kindly gave up one strand of hair and it was used to make a very powerful wand… A wand that chose you!" Eleanor glanced around and then leaned very close. "This wand," she whispered, "Will turn your wildest dreams into reality."

**Yay! Reviews! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Keep it coming, people!  **

**Ugh, I seemed destined to make mary-sue characters! I'll try my best to keep away from it, definitely tell me if there is anything particular that seems too mary-sueishly perfect… **


	4. Packing and Owl Difficulties

**Thank you, Camille and Vana for revealing that you were not figments of my creative genious and were in fact real people. All well, I hope that any readers I might possibly have somehow managed to aquire don't love me any less. Although they might after this chapter...**

As we came in the front door, I couldn't seem to keep the smile off my face, everything, well, almost everything, seemed so wonderful. I ran in to show my father all my new things, my shiny new set of silver weighing scales, a pocket-size brass telescope, my new robes and all my new books. As I went through the books, I was reminded of the missing one with the strange title. Preparing Yourself: A Guide to Dark Magic…

"Mom?" I called, "We'll have to look for this book." I said.

"Alright, why don't you leave the list on the counter and I'll see if I can order it."

"Ok…" I said and hurried to show my dad my wand, quickly forgetting about the book, once again.

The wand reminded me of the woman's words. 'This wand will turn your wildest dreams into reality.' What was that supposed to mean? I thought about seeing if Sylvia or Camille had had a similar experience, but then remembered what we had promised today. If I saw them again before leaving, I was sure to say goodbye. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stand parting with my friends again.

Instead, I got to work organizing my things in my new trunk and marking my calendar for the day that I left for school. I was trying my best to look forward to it, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to control the sinking sensation in my stomach that came every time I thought about leaving. As I carefully rolled my parchment and stuck it in the corner of the trunk, my cat, Fen, came to rub against my leg.

"Hey, fuzzy… I sure will miss you sweetie," I whispered, reaching down to scratch the big, orange tiger cat behind the ears. He looked at me with his big blue-ish green eyes, sorrowfully. Because of these big eyes, we'd thought he was a girl. Thus the name Muffin, then, because of my misspelling, he'd turned into Muffen, with an "e" instead of an "i", and when it was discovered, that he wasn't a girl, I'd called him Fen, though the rest of my family still insisted on Muffen.

One look into those eyes made me want to cry. "Oh, Fen… What will I do without you?" He bumped my elbow roughly with his head. Falling forward, I glanced into my trunk, and momentarily recalled that I had to check my list to make sure I'd gotten everything. This reminded me of something else. I jumped up so fast that Fen hissed and his fur stood on end. I ran into the hallway and grabbed my list of the table.

"Yes!" I cried, "Yes!" There, at the bottom of the list! "Students may also bring an owl or a toad or a… Cat! Yes! A cat!" Fen wandered out of my room and stood by my ankle, looking up questioningly.

"Hey, Fen, how would you like to come with me?" I asked, he rubbed my leg enthusiastically, which I took as, 'I don't understand a word you're saying but the answer is yes anyway.' Grinning widely, I ran off to show my parents.

Getting my parent's permission to bring Fen to Hogwarts took a lot of begging on my part. Of course, I would've brought him anyway, but I'd much rather have done it with their permission.

"But, honey, he'd be much happier here! This is his home! He's lived here for all of his life! I don't think it's a good idea to bring him…" my mother argued, but the truth of the matter was, I knew that for Fen, this wouldn't be home without me.

The days passed and my departure date drew nearer and nearer. I sat in my room, thinking about school. I looked through my trunk for the thousandth time. I carefully took out each book. I had skimmed a few of them; I hadn't really been sure how much we were supposed to read over the summer, and although I would have felt more prepared if I had read more, I doubted that anyone else would read all of their books.

Suddenly I realized that I had in fact forgotten something, despite the countless times I'd checked and rechecked. The book! We'd never ordered the book! I ran upstairs to my mother.

"Mom! We never ordered the defense against the dark arts book! You know, the one Carol couldn't find!"

"Oh, right! Don't worry, I'll go see if I can find it right now," she got up and went off in search for the book. As the days went on, our search got more and more desperate. Finally, we gave up. The book was no where to be found. None of the nearby or even not-so-nearby wizarding bookstores had it and none of the companies we talked to had ever heard of it.

"Just explain to your teacher that you couldn't find it. Apparently they don't have it here in the U.S." my mom said.

"Alright…" I sighed, but I was still nervous about coming to school without one of my books.

All too soon, it was August 30th and, at 6:30 A.M. my trunk, bags, Fen, Regal, our family owl, my mother and I all piled into the car and drove off toward the airport.

As unmagical as taking a plane to a famous wizarding school might seem, it was by far the most practical way. Neither my mother nor I could apparate and the government still refused to set up portkeys for students traveling overseas. The drive to Logan Airport only took about forty minutes, but by the time we'd eaten breakfast and gotten through security (the airport staff tend to get a little suspicious when you are carrying a large, formidable, grey owl…) it was 8:05. We hurried to catch the plane, which was boarding at 8:10 and finally managed to safely find our seats and take off. It took a long time to explain to the stewardess that although Fen was coming on the plane, he was not considered a carry-on item, and that Regal was, in fact, part of a program to reintroduce great grey owls to England.

My mother had suggested I bring Regal just until I got the hang of the place and managed to find the school owlery. Regal looked annoyed and hooted at the stewardess in an irritated, but dignified way. Quite taken aback, she finally allowed the owl to board the plane as long as he didn't make too much noise.

The flight was, for the most part, uneventful. People gave us dirty looks and whispered about mistreatment of animals and at one point Fen got annoyed at sitting in his cage for so long and knocked over his water bowl, spilling it all over my legs.

When we finally got everything to a pet-friendly hotel, although, owls were apparently not considered pets, and Regal had to be let out of his cage before we went inside, it was about 7:00 our time and midnight in England. Although it was still early for me, I tried my best to sleep. I wanted to be well-rested for the journey on the Hogwarts express tomorrow.

As I considered this, nervousness once again rose in the pit of my stomach. What would it be like? I didn't know anyone! I'd never been away from home for more then four weeks at a time! I tried reassuring myself. I was confident and friendly. I could make friends in no time. It didn't work. The next morning, when my mom woke me for the drive to King's Cross station, I hadn't slept a wink.

**Ugh, sorry for that boring, pointless chapter. I had a case writer's block and how interesting can packing and taking a plane trip be? Well, review anyway! **


	5. Friends

The next morning, I dressed carefully. I was sick with nervousness, but I tried to pay attention to what I wore. Finally I just put on a tank top and jeans and tried to gulp down a few bites of toast. We drove to King's Cross station and loaded my trunk, Fen and Regal onto a trolley.

Something called the Ministry of Magic; apparently the government of wizards in England had contacted us earlier to explain how to get to the train that would bring me to Hogwarts. It was located on Platform 9 ¾ and apparently, the only way to get at it was to walk head-on straight into the wall between platforms 9 and 10. This, I had thought would be easy enough, but now, as I approached the wall with my trolley, I began to have second thoughts. The grimy bricks in front of me looked awfully solid.

I glanced about for any muggles and then closed my eyes and pushed my cart toward the bricks. 'Come on!' I thought to myself, 'I'm a witch from a wizarding family! I can do this!' with that I slid through the wall. I had braced my self for an impact and when I didn't feel the cart smash into the hard wall, I was surprised and opened my eyes. I gasped at the sight the met me when I did.

A scarlet steam engine labeled "The Hogwarts Express" in big letters sat in front of me. I'd done it! I was through the wall. A large sign read Platform 9 ¾. My mother appeared beside me and helped me lift my trunk onto the train. With a final wave good bye, I boarded and prepared myself to face my new life at the most famous boarding school for witches and wizards, halfway around the world from my family.

Halls filled with people were on either side of me. Where could I go? I wondered. I could join a compartment that already had people on it, but how would I know which people to join? I could look for people about my age who might be in my year, but what if they didn't want me to join them? I didn't want to make enemies on my very first day… I considered my plight and finally chose to sit in the first empty compartment I came to. That way, people could join me, and I wouldn't have to worry about be unwelcome.

I finally sat and placed my trunk carefully in the luggage rack. If no one came, at least I had Regal and Fen. I hesitated and then opened Fen's carrier. He streaked out, very glad to be released and promptly jumped onto a seat in the corner and began grooming himself.

I laughed and sat back to watch him. "You know Fen, right now you're my only friend on this train," I told him. He looked up and stopped washing his face. Quickly, he hopped down from the window and gave me a reassuring nudge.

"I know I'll make friends, I'm just saying that I'm glad you-" The compartment door suddenly slid open. Several laughing people about my age stood outside.

"Er… Mind if we join you two or were you in the middle of something?" asked one boy with fiery red hair. This brought another burst of laughter from the group. I felt my face turn as scarlet as the train, but I nodded quickly and tried to make it into a joke.

"Three of us, actually," I said, gesturing to Regal. Two girls glanced at each other raising their eyebrows and suppressing giggles. At first I thought they'd taken me seriously when I joked about the owl being another friend, but then I realized they were laughing because I didn't have an accent. Or rather, from their point of view, because I did have one.

"You're from overseas then, eh?" asked another boy with bright red hair. He was identical to the first who had spoken, they were twins, I assumed. I nodded.

"This is my first year,"

"All of us are new too," One of the twins said, gesturing around.

"I'm Fred," The first one informed me, "And this is my brother, George,"

"Wait," a girl with a blue pleated skirt and bright blonde hair said, sounding confused. "I thought you were George and you were Fred!"

"I'm Fred," George explained,

"No you aren't" said a tall boy with dreadlocks, "You're George. Fred has the untied shoelaces. That's how he tripped and ended up in here,"

"Oh, thanks Lee, you gave us away," Fred laughed.

"It really doesn't make much of a difference who's who," George said, "You're bound to mix us up anyway,"

"Sarah," I said, looking around at everyone. "I'm Sarah,"

The dreadlocks guy, a tall pale boy, the blonde haired girl and two other girls proceeded to introduce themselves as Lee Jordan, Thomas MacMillan, Sandy Lillis, Angelina Johnson and Fiona Tresh. They all seemed friendly enough, although Sandy and Fiona had to stifle their giggles whenever I spoke, but, I realized, all of the girls were wearing skirts and plain, neat shirts, not ripped jeans and tank tops that said- I gulped as I realized another mistake. I'd figured it would be best to wear a black shirt so it wouldn't show through my robes, but my only black tank top was a souvenir from my trip to Washington D.C. and said 'Freedom: Proud to be an American' in bold red, white and blue letters.

Wonderful. I'd pretty much labeled myself as an arrogant American. I quickly pulled a sweat shirt on, hopefully no one had noticed my American tank top. The sweat shirt said Fitchburg Finches. Not as bad Proud to be an American, but still not perfect. I couldn't wait to get my robes on.

"So Sarah, what's your friend here's name?" Angelina was asking, pointing to Fen. I could see she was trying to make it a joke.

I smiled, "That's Fen. He's not very talkative, but he's a good listener," I said, laughing.

"I was actually telling him that, erm, I was glad he didn't try to catch birds because otherwise I'd get very worried with all the owls around Hogwarts. I'm not sure about other owls, but Regal here, is vicious," Not entirely the truth, but I wasn't about to tell them that I was complaining to my cat about not having any friends.

This got a laugh from Angelina. "Oh, yes, Tom, show her your owl! Tom's owl, Sneezy, is absolutely ferocious," Thomas MacMillan lifted up his back pack and rummaged around. He withdrew the tiniest owl I had ever seen. It was no larger than his fist and it sat, chattering away in its tiny little cage. "He's adorable!" squealed Fiona.

"Terrifyingly adorable," Fred said gravely. Everyone laughed. As I looked around at all the people, smiling and laughing, I thought that maybe finding new friends might not be so difficult and living across an ocean from all my family and friends wouldn't be so bad.

**Sorry about the delay between chapters for anyone who was actually interested in reading this. Everyone is probably off reading the Half-blood Prince anyhow… I, as your very devoted ff writer managed to somehow put the book down and take a break so that I could get this chapter up. So, now that you've read it, make me happy and leave a review! **


	6. Hogwarts Castle

As the windows darkened, rain began to fall, splattering loudly against the sides of the train. A snack trolley had just passed filled with all sorts of magical sweets. Some I'd recognized, others I hadn't, but as the only money I had was American and of very little use here, I'd bought nothing. I had sat, feeling rather lonely in the corner of the compartment until the twins had started making a game out of finding the most noxious jelly beans they possibly could and inviting others to eat them. I ended up with dirt, something slightly salty and tasteless, which I didn't really want to guess at the flavor of, and chili pepper, which actually wasn't that bad except for the steam that continually billowed out of my ears for the next half hour.

Angelina now suggested we put our robes on, which we did, and then all glanced around at one another, taking in our new appearances. At this point the conversation turned to the four Hogwart's houses, which I knew nothing about.

"O.K., let me get this straight…" Fiona said, addressing Fred and George who apparently had one brother in the third year and one in the seventh.

"There's Gryffindor… Where your brothers are…" They nodded solemnly.

"If we don't get into Gryffindor, I reckon mum will kill us," Fred said.

"Whole family, all the way back, mum and dad too, have all been in Gryffindor," George added.

"And then… What? Um… Huffly-puffle?" Fiona asked.

"No," Lee corrected, "It's Hufflepuff. I heard about them. Bunch of softies apparently… You don't want to end up in there,"

"Yeah, but Slytherin'd be worse," George said darkly.

"Slytherin?" asked Sandy.

"Yep. Our brother, Charlie, he says there isn't a dark wizard anywhere who wasn't in Slytherin back at Hogwarts. Nasty bunch, mum would disown us first and then kill us if we ended up in Slytherin," Fred explained.

"Wait… there's four, isn't there? Which is the fourth one?" I asked.

"Uh… Ravenclaw, I think…" Lee said.

"Yes, dead smart, Bill said you have to be brilliant to end up in there. Wouldn't be too bad I spose. Bit dull, though; probably all really brainy," Fred said.

"So… Bill is in… his seventh year? And Charlie is in his third?" I asked,

"No," George replied, grimacing slightly, "Bill's already graduated. Charlie is in his seventh year and _Percy_ is in his third,"

"They're all spectacular, all three of them. Bill was head boy. Went to his head a bit if you ask me, but he's alright. He works at Gringotts now, just got a job there," Fred said, a note of pride in his voice, "and then there's Charlie, he's Quidditch captain for Gryffindor. He's a fantastic seeker… I hope I can get on the team next year…"

"Percy is a bit of a prat. Really ambitious; I reckon he wants to be minister of magic someday. Anyway, he's always gotten fantastic grades; he'll probably be a prefect in the fifth year. He's never put even a toenail out of line in his entire life," George said, continuing the explanation of his brothers for Fred, who seemed to be dreaming about Quidditch at the moment.

"Well, we sure aren't going to be prefects… And I wouldn't mine putting a toe or more out of line every now and then," Fred said.

"Yeah, I think a bit of mischief is probably exactly what mum and dad need. I mean, three perfect sons, they're bound to get bored eventually." George added, conversationally.

"And I reckon Hogwarts could do with some excitement as well. If Percy is enjoying himself there, it's certain to be rather dull… Anyway, I can promise you, Fred and George Weasley won't be prefects or head boy… Though I wouldn't mind Quidditch captain," Fred said conclusively.

The train was slowing down, and suddenly movement filled the hallways as people scrambled out onto the platform. I quickly shut Fen back in his carrier and brought him, Regal, and my trunk out onto the station. I glanced around, unsure of what to do next and feeling the rain dripping off the end of my ponytail and soaking my robes. Suddenly, a booming voice cut through the chilling rain, calling, "Firs' years! Over here! Firs' years!" A gigantic man carrying a swinging lantern was leading all of us down a steep trail. "Righ', come on now! Follow me, stay close now…"

Slowly, all of us descended the slippery path, covering our faces against the icy rain. The thick foliage on either side of the trail was pitch black, and the stars were invisible behind a dark grey cover of clouds. Up ahead the huge man had stopped, "Alrigh' everyone! In a sec yer goin' ter see yer firs' glimpse of Hogwarts. Jus' round the bend now!" Everyone pushed at one another, leaning forward and trying to see around the corner. Suddenly there were gasps up ahead. I could just barely see, emerging from the haze, the huge stone turrets of an enormous castle. Lights in distant windows glowed warmly against the rain and the castle seemed comforting and friendly, tucked into the hills and across an enormous lake.

"Jus' climb into the boats here, everyone… Four to a boat! I'm Hagrid by the way. Gamekeeper here at Hogwarts," I scrambled down the sand toward the boat. Again I was unsure who to sit with and I looked nervously at the rapidly filling boats. Then, however, Angelina grabbed my arm and pulled me into a boat with the twins.

"Blimey, That's… big," George said, looking at the castle.

"All the more room to explore!" Fred said jovially, and with that the group of boats moved forward across the lake.

Soon Hagrid called "Watch yer heads!" and all of the boats made their way through a curtain of ivy into a large cave set in the side of a cliff. We continued to float slowly through a wide tunnel, all of us very relieved to be out of the rain. Eventually the boats reached the shore. We seemed to be in a sort of dimly lit, cavernous harbor. Hagrid lead everyone up a set of stone steps. Once more, the driving rain was pounding into our faces, but luckily a large wooden door had just opened to admit everyone. We marched into a huge entrance hall, dripping wet and glancing around nervously.

A strict looking woman stood in front of all of us waiting for the whispers to die down. "Welcome to Hogwarts everyone. Please follow me…" She lead us down the enormous hallway and into a smaller room with a merry fire place crackling in the hearth. Quickly everyone crowded around it, trying to dry their soaking robes.

"My name is Professor McGonagall. In a moment, you will join our older students in the start of term feast. First, however, you must be sorted into houses. The sorting of new students is very important as your house will become a sort of family for you while you are here at Hogwarts. You will dine in the Great Hall with your house, you will have classes with other members of your year in your house, you will sleep in your house dormitory and spend most of your free time in your house common room. The four houses are Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Hufflepuff. Each has produced superb witches and wizards and each, in turn has won the house cup. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will win your house points, while any mischief will lose points for your house. Whichever house has the most points at the end of the year will win the house cup, which is a great honor. I hope that all of you will be a credit to your new houses. Now… The sorting ceremony will begin in a few moments. I shall return for you when it is time,"

And with that, she left the room, leaving a lot of nervous whispering behind her. "What do you reckon we have to do?" Lee was asking Fred and George.

"I dunno… I don't think Bill or Charlie ever mentioned it," George replied, somewhat nervously.

"Relax… They all passed it, whatever it is. Can't be too hard, can it?" Fred said confidently.

"What do you think it is?" Angelina asked me.

"I don't know. Do you think it's some sort of test?" She shrugged, nervously straightening her robes.

"I hope not. I haven't learned any magic yet,"

Fiona turned to us, "How does my hair look?" she asked, "Sandy says her sister told her it's in front of the whole school!"

This bit of information caused even more anxious murmuring amongst the others. Suddenly, Professor McGonagall entered the room once more. "Please form a line and follow me!" she said. I stepped into line behind the Weasleys and Angelina, with Fiona and Sandy behind me. We once more entered the hall and followed Professor McGonagall to a pair of huge double doors, behind which we could hear the whispering of the rest of the school.

"This is it!" Sandy said breathlessly. I nervously ran my fingers through my own hair, wondering what we would be required to do. With a sweeping gesture, Professor McGonagall threw open the doors and lead us into the Great Hall.


	7. The Sorting

As we entered the Great Hall my mouth fell open. Hundreds of candles flickered in midair over the four, long, house tables. Golden plates and goblets were set at every place. The ceiling overhead (or at least I assumed it was a ceiling as I was not getting wet) was just as fantastic as the rest of the hall. Dark grey clouds swirled ominously across it and a fork of lightening flashed somewhere.

Professor McGonagall lead us past all the students, toward the teacher's table. When we reached it, she turned the line around so that we were facing the house tables. In front of the line was a plain wooden stool. On it, Professor McGonagall had just placed a rather worn looking, dirty old black hat. Everyone in the hall had gone silent and they were all staring intently at the patched wizard's hat. Suddenly, tear opened near the brim, and the hat began to sing:

"_I can see it on your faces,_

_That you are wondering why_

_A task as important as this_

_Is given to a hat like I._

_Frayed and dirty I may seem,_

_But if you look you'll never find_

_Any other hat like me, _

_For I am one of a kind!_

_Yes, I am the Hogwarts Sorting Hat!_

_An important hat indeed!_

_I'll see into your mind, I will,_

_Your courage and your greed._

_Try me on and don't be shy,_

_I'll tell you where you ought to go._

_Whatever is in your head will tell me_

_All I need to know._

_In Gryffindor you might belong,_

_With the daring and strong of heart _

_Quick thinking and most noble souls,_

_In Gryffindor bravery is their art._

_Or perhaps in Ravenclaw you'll find,_

_That you belong the most,_

_Intelligent and witty, creative and quite wise,_

_Those who're ready for learning, Ravenclaw does boast._

_Or is it yet in Hufflepuff,_

_Where you'll fit in the best?_

_Friendship strong and loyalty,_

_And patience more then all the rest._

_And last, perhaps in Slytherin you'll be._

_Cunning, and ambitious Slytherin._

_Proud and determined to the end,_

_Perhaps here you'll find your kin. _

_So why not try me on right now?_

_And find what house you're in!_

_You'll be safe with me, I've said,_

_And now let the sorting begin!"_

All the tables burst into applause as the hat finished. "Oh, thank goodness!" Angelina whispered, "All we have to do is put it on!"

I was relieved, but still a little nervous. Every single person was staring at us and it was making me feel rather sick to my stomach. Also, though I'd only met them a few hours before, I was desperately hoping to be in the same house as Fred and George and Angelina. Even Sandy and Fiona would be alright as long as there was someone in my house I knew.

Professor McGonagall was holding a long scroll; she stepped forward, saying, "When I call your name, you will sit on the stool and place the hat on your head. It will announce your new house and you will then join that table," She cleared her throat and glanced at the list, "Abbarton, Kris!"

A tall boy came forward, grimacing nervously around the hall. He placed the hat on his head and sat down on the stool. "SLYTHERIN!" the hat called loudly after a moment.

The Slytherin table cheered loudly and Kris Abbarton went to join them. I anxiously watched Professor McGonagall. I knew that she probably wouldn't get to the S's for a long time, but I was still nervous. It would be awful if I accidentally missed my name.

"Beron, Gordon!" Professor McGonagall called. A terrified looking black boy stepped forward, carefully sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head. This time the hat slipped all the way down past his ears and sat on his head quite a while longer then Kris Abbarton, before calling, "RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaws cheered even more loudly then the Slytherins and several people moved over to offer Gordon Beron a seat. "Douglas, Kevin" became the first new Hufflepuff. He was immediately followed by "Elmont, Ben" who became a Hufflepuff almost the second the hat touched his head.

"Fitzgerald, Juliana!" Professor McGonagall called. A short girl with long black curls that swished elegantly against her school robes stepped forward gracefully and sat on the stool. "SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried immediately.

Some people took much longer then others to be sorted. When "Frank, Aaron" was called, it took what felt like forever for the hat to call "SLYTHERIN!" where as when "Hansky, Michael" went to put the hat on it took it only a second to decide on Slytherin. I watched Michael hurry over to join Aaron Frank.

"They're on the H's!" Angelina whispered. "Only a few more!" She looked scared to death and when "Henrique, Ana" was sorted into Slytherin, she ran a hand over her hair and smoothed her robes carefully.

"Johnson, Angelina!" called Professor McGonagall. Angelina hurried forward, nearly tripping on the hem of George's overlong robes as she went. She sat nervously on the edge of the stool and slipped the hat on. It fell past her eyes and there was a moment of silence before it announced "GRYFFINDOR!" Angelina tugged the hat off, looking very relieved and hurried to the Gryffindor table, where I could see someone with vivid red hair greeting her.

"That's Charlie," George whispered. "She's lucky. Very first Gryffindor!"

Lee Jordan soon joined her. About a fourth of the people were gone now. I glanced around the great hall, crossing my fingers and hoping I would end up in Gryffindor. "Kim, Devin" was now joining Slytherin and "Lewis, Zach" had just been sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Lillis, Sandy!" Sandy walked forward and put the hat on over her blonde curls. She waited for a long time before the hat finally announced "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Behind me I heard Fiona whispering "I wanted to be in the same house as her, but Huffly-puffle? I don't know…"

Slowly the line was thinning, "Luniere, Jacques" was sorted into Slytherin and the pale boy from the train, Thomas MacMillan went to Ravenclaw. "Mckorkin, Justin" was made the next Gryffindor and "O'Leary, Sean" joined Thomas MacMillan in Ravenclaw.

"Owens, Sylvie", a petite girl with long silvery blond hair sat next to Angelina when she was sorted into Gryffindor. Just then I heard Professor McGonagall say "Sara" and I thought I was going to have a heart attack until I remembered that she was only on P and I saw that Sara Palinsky was already stepping forward to put on the hat.

After her, Professor McGonagall called, "Spinnet, Alicia". My palms started sweating and my stomach gave an unpleasant lurch. At last, she was on the S's. "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat declared. Alicia Spinnet hurried to join Angelina and Sylvie.

Professor McGonagall turned back to her list. "Starell, Sarah!" She called. I gulped and walked forward to try the hat on. I sat on the stool and lifted the hat on to my head. It immediately fell down to cover my eyes. I was almost grateful for the soft black interior which blocked out the hundreds of faces staring straight at me.

Suddenly a voice was whispering in my ear. "Hmmm… Let's see, what have we here? Lots of imagination… Good head, you'll learn quickly… But… Oh, what's this? Ambitious are we? Big plans for the future, eh? Well… This is interesting. You're smarter than you think, you know… I'd know just where to put you except for that ambitious bit… You've got a lot of determination, too. Did you know that? Hmmm… Slytherin would help you achieve your dreams… but I think you might do well in RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted the last word, apparently having made its decision. Relief swept over me, then disappointment. I wasn't in the same house as Angelina, like I'd hoped. All well, I thought, at least it's not Slytherin, and I'm sure I'll make friends.

Quickly I removed the hat and handed it to "Stimpson, Patricia". I walked toward the Ravenclaw table, which was now cheering loudly. When I was halfway there I tripped, but caught myself before I fell. Several people laughed. I blushed bright red and sat down at the closest empty bench. There were no other first year Ravenclaw girls yet, so I just sat at an empty place next to a friendly looking second year.

The rest of the sorting seemed to go by much more quickly then it had before I'd tried the hat on. "Stone, Amelia" and "Towler, Kenneth" had just joined Gryffindor. Next a pair of twin girls, Harper and Jordan Travers, were sorted, to my surprise, into different houses, Slytherin and Hufflepuff. It seemed to me that twins should be in the same house, but, then again, not all twins were as identical as the Weasleys. These two certainly weren't. Jordan, who had long auburn hair, went scowling over to sit next to Juliana Fitzgerald at the Slytherin table, while Harper, who had trimmed, dark brown hair went over to Hufflepuff, smiling widely as she joined the table.

Then it was Fiona's turn. "Tresh, Fiona!" called Professor McGonagall. She stepped forward and sat on the stool. I tried to decide whether I hoped she was in Ravenclaw or not. On the one hand, she would be someone I knew, but on the other hand I wasn't sure if I could stand her constantly laughing at my accent. "HUFFLEPUFF!" cried the hat. Well, that solves that problem, I thought. I could see Sandy's blonde head bobbing up and down cheering for Fiona.

"Weasley, Fred!" Professr McGonagall read. Fred came forward, congenially plopping the ragged hat on his head. "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat called immediately. Next George came up. The hat literally had not even touched the very top of his fiery hair before it screeched "GRYFFINDOR!"

There were now only three people left. "Wells, Megan!" Professor McGonagall called. A plain black girl with ornately braided hair stepped forward and placed the hat on her head. The hat paused for a moment, and then called "RAVENCLAW!" I was relieved. At first I had been afraid that I would be the only girl in Ravenclaw. I quickly moved over to make room on the bench for her, but she passed by me and went to sit at the other end of the table. Feeling a little lonely, I went back to watching the sorting.

"Winters, Victoria!" Professor McGonagall read out from her list. A girl with dark brown hair and a pale, delicate face placed the hat on her thick curls. "RAVENCLAW!" the hat called again. I glanced up hopefully, but Victoria Winters passed me too and went to sit with Megan. Once Tajel Zarri had been sorted into Hufflepuff, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster, stood as if to give a speech. I looked down at my empty plate, my stomach grumbling loudly.

However, Professor Dumbledore simply smiled around broadly at all of us and announced, "Bon appetite!" The hall filled with noise as people began passing trays of food around. Delicious smells wafted from the various dishes that had just appeared. I quickly helped myself to a little of everything. Thee food tasted even better then it smelled. I was halfway through eating a pile of creamy mashed potatoes when a pearly, transparent, something descended next to me.

"Hello," she said mournfully. I swallowed the lump of potatoes and stared at her for a moment before I found my voice again.

"Um, hello," I knew they existed, but I had never seen a ghost before. I was quite sure that this was one however; she was wearing a long ball gown, the hem of which was currently drifting through the bench I was sitting on.

"New student?" she asked in a dreamy, indifferent sort of voice. I nodded. "Good…" she said vaguely, "Ravenclaw is certainly the best of all the houses. I'm Lady Genevieve by the way…" She drifted off down the table, leaving me staring after her.

Dinner was soon replaced by dessert, after which the plates were left sparkling clean. At last Professor Dumbledore stood again. "Welcome, to all our new students, and welcome back to all the rest! I'd like to inform all our first years that the forest on our grounds is forbidden… And Mr. Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker has asked me to remind you that magic in the halls between classes is prohibited. You can find a full list of all the school rules and prohibited items tacked to Mr. Filch's door. I believe there are at least four hundred and thirty-six of them now… Also, tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested should give their names to their head of house or to Madam Hooch. And now, off to bed with you!"


	8. Lost in a World of Magic

Slowly the Great Hall emptied as everyone retreated sleepily to their dormitories. The other first year Ravenclaws and I followed a tall, fifth year prefect named Morgan Welsh-Linn to the Ravenclaw dormitory. I tried to remember all the winding staircases and elegant corridors that we took, but I quickly lost track. Several times we had to step through hidden doorways behind threadbare tapestries, or go up stair cases that I'd thought we had just gone down. At last Morgan announced that we were almost there as she lead us down a warmly lit hallway with polished mahogany walls and great stained glass windows depicting wizards casting powerful spells and brewing complicated potions. We stopped before a plain stone statue of an eagle, silhouetted against another arched stained glass window, this one showing a wizard in hideous green robes pouring over an ancient looking spell book.

"_Scientia est vox_!" She said loudly to the eagle.

He sprang to life, nodding his great, feathered head, "Right you are, my dear!" He leapt aside and I just glimpsed the stained glass wizard waving at us and holding his book open to a page reading 'Welcome, Ravenclaws!', before the window swung open. Instead of the moonlit grounds of Hogwarts, the window revealed a comfortable common room with great stone walls, a soft blue carpetand two fireplaces surrounded by large, fluffy blue armchairs.

"Boys staircase is the one on the left and girls is on the right," Morgan said, gesturing to two carpeted staircases at the back of the room. I followed the other Ravenclaw girls to our room. It was small, but cozy, with three beds, bureaus and bookshelves. Candles were set in nooks along the wall, glowing in a friendly way. Our trunks had already arrived and Fen sat on my bed, washing himself.

Victoria and Megan, the two other first years were sitting on their on beds, talking.

"I'm sure my mother will be really pleased. Everyone in our family all the way back has been in either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. What about you?" Victoria was saying.

"I don't know. The hat was going to put me in Hufflepuff, but I asked it not to. I don't think my mum would care but my sister would probably tease me. Oh!" she said, noticing me, "I'm Megan,"

"I'm Sarah," I said, smiling.

"Where're you from then?" asked Victoria without so much as an introductory 'hello'.

"Oh, um, Boston…" I said, a bit taken aback.

"The United States? I could tell from your accent," She said rather unnecessarily. "What about you, will your family be pleased with your house?"

"I don't think they know enough about Hogwarts to care, really. The hat was thinking about putting me in Slytherin, but-"

"Oh, so you're pureblood then?" Victoria asked, cutting me off. "I am. My whole family goes back, centuries and centuries. I don't really think they should let muggle-born people in at all. I mean, they haven't grown up around magic, have they? Most of them have never even heard of Hogwarts! It's not fair, really. There are plenty of good, pureblood, families around who would love to have their children go to Hogwarts,"

"Actually, I'm only halfblood, my dad is a wizard, but my mom's sister was witch so I did, um… grow up around magic," I said, slightly indignant about her prejudice, but trying not to let it show. I didn't want to get into an argument or anything, but I really couldn't understand what people had against muggle-borns.

"Oh… oh, well I didn't mean… you know, it's not like I'm a muggle-hater or anything," She said, sounding rather surprised.

"What about you?" I asked Megan, trying to smooth over the awkwardness. "Is your family a wizarding family?"

"Yes, I'm pureblood," she said, but it didn't sound as if it really mattered to her. We unpacked silently, mostly because we were all too tired to say much to each other, but the silence still felt a little uncomfortable. I hoped that by the next morning we would all have forgotten the conversation and start over fresh.

However, in the morning, Megan and Victoria finished getting ready a few minutes before me and left the dormitory together, leaving me to find my way for myself. I nervously crept out of the stained glass doorway and into the hall. For a minute I couldn't even remember whether I should go left down the hall to a tall spiral stairway or right to a large wooden door, but then I saw several fourth years who appeared to have just left the common room and I managed to follow them down what felt like hundreds of corridors and staircases.

Finally we reached the Great Hall which was now filled with all sorts of breakfast food. I sat down at the end of the Ravenclaw table and reached for a blueberry muffin. Suddenly, however, I was interrupted by a whooshing sound that filled the hall as though a hundred owls were all flapping their wings at once. Then I realized that in fact the sound _was_ a hundred owls all swooping into the Great Hall, apparently delivering the morning mail. Owls in all shades of brown, white, black, and grey flew through the room, dropping letters into goblets of pumpkin juice and newspapers into bowls of cereal. Owls of all kinds filled the space below the enchanted ceiling, which was cloudless and dull blue this morning. There were screech owls, snowy owls, great greys, barn owls, spotted owls, eagle owls, tawny owls, great horned owls, and I even thought I spotted a fluffy little pygmy owl carrying a package twice its size.

For several seconds I sat transfixed by the site, until a very short wizard who I soon learned was called Professor Flitwick gave me a card with my schedule on it. It included the days and times of all of my classes and what other house I'd be having the class with. On the back was printed the teacher and location of each class.

Monday:  
8:00-8:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor  
9:00-9:45 Herbology with Slytherin  
9:55-10:40 Charms with Hufflepuff  
11:00-11:45 Free  
11:55-12:40 Potions with Hufflepuff  
12:40-1:40 Lunch  
2:00-2:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
2:55-3:40 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
3:50-4:35 History of Magic with Slytherin  
4:50-5:35 Free

Tuesday:

8:00-8:45 History of Magic with Slytherin  
9:00-9:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor  
9:55-10:40 Free  
11:00-11:45 Herbology with Slytherin  
11:55-12:40 Herbology with Slytherin  
12:40-1:40 Lunch  
2:00-2:45 Potions with Hufflepuff  
2:55-3:40 Free  
3:50-4:35 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
4:50-5:35 Charms with Hufflepuff

Wednesday:

8:00-8:45 History of Magic with Slytherin  
9:00-9:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
9:55-10:40 Transfiguration with Gryffindor  
11:00-11:45 Transfiguration with Gryffindor  
11:55-12:40 Potions with Hufflepuff  
12:40-1:40 Lunch  
2:00-2:45 Free  
2:55-3:40 Charms with Hufflepuff  
3:50-4:35 Charms with Hufflepuff  
4:50-5:35 Free  
11:00-12:00 Astronomy with Gryffindor

Thursday:

8:00-8:45 Potions with Hufflepuff  
9:00-9:45 Potions with Hufflepuff  
9:55-10:40 Free  
11:00-11:45 History of Magic with Slytherin  
11:55-12:40 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
12:40-1:40 Lunch  
2:00-2:45 Charms with Hufflepuff  
2:55-3:40 Herbology with Slytherin  
3:50-4:35 Free  
4:50-5:35 Transfiguration with Gryffindor

Friday:

8:00-8:45 Charms with Hufflepuff  
9:00-9:45 D.A.D.A. with Slytherin  
9:55-10:40 Herbology with Slytherin  
11:00-11:45 Potions with Hufflepuff  
11:55-12:40 Transfiguration with Gryffindor  
12:40-1:40 Lunch  
2:00-2:45 Free  
2:55-3:40 Free  
3:50-4:35 Free  
4:50-5:35 Free

Saturday:

11:55-12:40 Flying Lessons with Ravenclaw (every other Saturday; weather permittig)

"You'll want to keep that around. The teachers often change the schedule, so you should make sure you check it every now and then," Professor Flitwick said in a squeaky voice.

I looked it over carefully. I was disappointed to see that I only had transfiguration and astronomy with Gryffindor, but I was excited that I had transfiguration first thing today and would be able to see Angelina. On Tuesday, I noticed, I had a free period after transfiguration. Maybe I could study with her after the class.

I glanced at my watch to see how much time I had and gasped. It was ten minutes to 8:00! I had ten minutes to get to transfiguration, which, according to my schedule card, was on the third floor. Wondering vaguely whether the floor I was on now counted as the ground floor or the first floor, I hurriedly gathered up my things and glanced around desperately for another Gryffindor or Ravenclaw first year.

Up ahead I saw Thomas McMillan from the train who I remembered was in Ravenclaw. He was walking with Sean O'Leary, another Ravenclaw. I sped up, trying to keep them in sight, but not let them notice me following them. I wasn't sure that they knew exactly where they were going either, they kept stopping and had to go back and retrace their steps several times.

They were desperately trying to open a locked door now, arguing over which way they should go. I checked my watch, the halls were nearly empty now and we only had four more minutes to get to class. I heard foot steps coming up the stairs behind us and turned quickly. I was on the verge of asking whoever it was for directions, when they suddenly let out an angry shout. It was Mr. Filch, the caretaker.

"You two! What do you think you're doing? That hall is forbidden to students!" He screeched.

"We had no idea, honest!" Sean exclaimed.

"We were lost! We meant to go to the transfiguration department, and I thought it was through this door here!"

"See sir, my brother said if you got lost you should find the big, oak, door next to the portrait of Christopher the Curious and I thought this was it, so I was just trying to get through it so I could find my way-"

"Oh, you were, were you? Well… For your information, this door is out of bounds and furthermore…"

I never heard what else the door was; I was too busy trying to casually walk away while really going as fast as I could without running. I was going to be late for my very first class at Hogwarts ever. And, to make matters worse, Professor McGonagall was going to be the teacher and she really hadn't looked like the kind of person who'd be very forgiving about lateness. I was so worried about this that I almost bumped into a Gryffindor fourth year walking down the hallway toward me.

"Excuse me," I gasped, extremely relieved, "Do you know where the transfiguration department is?" She gave me a very odd look before replying, "Yeah… Right here." She stalked off muttering about snotty little first years and I felt my cheeks reddening. A large gold plaque on the wall right next to me said clearly 'Transfiguration'.

I turned to my left and saw classroom 8, where my class would be held, right next to me. Almost too relieved to be embarrassed anymore, I quickly opened the door and took one of the few remaining seats, near the back. Angelina gave me an understanding look, while Victoria giggled slightly, whispering something to Megan.

"Ah, good. We're just waiting for four more then. Please take out your books. I'm sure they will be arriving momentarily," Professor McGonagall said.

A petite girl with dark brown hair came into the classroom, looking rather confused. "And you would be Amelia Stone?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Yes, Professor," she said, sitting down nervously with the other Gryffindor girls.

"Now, let's see… It appears we're missing Kenneth Towler, Thomas MacMillan, and Sean O'Leary…" The door opened again and Thomas and Sean walked in.

"Good morning, boys. So glad you decided to join us. Now, as we are only missing one person, and he is already late for my class, I think we will begin," She said, gesturing to two empty seats in front of her and indicating the we should all listen up.

"Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and dangerous of magics taught here at Hogwarts. If done incorrectly, the results can be catastrophic. Therefore, anyone caught fooling around will leave this class and will not return. Is this understood?" She asked, there was general consent around the room and Professor McGonagall nodded briskly and withdrew her wand from the pocket of her robes. She gave a small flourish and the hat stand by the door became a small giraffe, its neck bent absurdly to keep its great spotted head from touching the ceiling.

Everyone applauded and there was an air of excitement around the room. "When can we do that?" asked a boy called Josh Grenson loudly. But, as we soon discovered, we would not be able to change inanimate objects into animals for a long time. Professor McGonagall first set us to reading the first chapter in our books and then passed out matches that were to be turned into needles. I quickly realized it was a lot more difficult than I had thought. There were complicated movements that had to be done just so and tongue twisting words that had to be said with exactly the right emphasis.

For the umpteenth time I cried "_Postulmuto_!" gracefully swooping my wand downward and then jabbing it at the match. Nothing happened at first, but then my wand grew warm for a second and a tingling hum spread through my fingers and up my arm. Suddenly the match exploded, smoking wildly, its splinters of shrapnel turning first purple then green and finally bursting into flame before flying across the classroom. It was completely quiet for a second, unbroken except for the cries of people being hit with flaming bits of transfigured match.

"What in the world did you do?" ask Professor McGonagall, sounding more perplexed rather than angry.

"I- I'm not sure," I stammered, looking at the devastation I had caused. Apparently the splinters had turned into molten bits of metal which were now making dangerous sizzling noises and letting off a smell that was suspiciously like melting plastic.

"I think you were a bit… overenthusiastic," Professor McGonagall said, vanishing the remnants of the match with a flick of her wand. "It appears that you somehow… uh, blew up and melted your match. However, it seems that you did in fact manage to turn it into a needle a few seconds prior to, er… exploding it. Well done, for that you can have five points to Ravenclaw. On the other hand, it is evident that you have a rather strong knack for magic… a rather large amount of power, shall we say, for a first year and you don't seemed to have yet mastered control of this. I warn you, be very careful. Don't get carried away when you are practicing spells. Is that understood, Miss Starell?"

I nodded, embarrassed. "Alright then, I think it is time for you to go to your next class. I want everyone to write me a short essay on what you read in the first chapter of your books. I will collect them on Wednesday," With that, the class filed from the room, whispering enthusiastically about our first lesson.

I was still thinking about my explosion. As I glanced down at my wand, which was still smoking slightly, I thought back to the words of the woman who had sold it to me. '_This wand will turn your wildest dreams into reality_.'


	9. Teasing and Charming

The rest of the day swept by in a blur. For herbology, luckily I could just follow the other Ravenclaws. Also, finding the class's location wasn't too difficult as if you looked out any window facing the eastern part of the grounds, you could easily see the slanted glass roofs of the greenhouses. The teacher, a short plump witch with dirt smeared on her face, lead us into the first greenhouse and lectured us about safety before introducing us to the many exotic plants that inhabited the greenhouse and giving us a short tour and an overview of what the class would be like. It didn't seem too hard; it would mostly be wild, imported, magical plants that needed to be cared for. It seemed that we would be transplanting, pruning, watering and learning about the many plants and their uses.

After herbology, we had only a few minutes in which we trooped back to the castle and set off to find our charms class. I tried to remember a few landmarks so that the next time I had charms I would find it easier, but I kept forgetting whether I was supposed to pass the rusting suit of armor or the tapestry of a witch in a pink cloak playing a flute first.

When we arrived at his class, Professor Flitwick, who was apparently the head of Ravenclaw, started out by taking the attendance.

He stood, balanced on a pile of books behind his desk, reading off the names, slowly trying to match them with faces.

"Gordon Beron?" he called. A short black boy with glasses who I'd seen being sorted raised his hand.

"Kevin Douglas?" A pale boy from Hufflepuff nodded. "Ben Elmont?" A boy who I remembered had been sorted immediately after the hat touched his head answered.

"Josh Grenson?" A boy in my house with plain brown hair smiled and called loudly, "Here!"

"Kayla Hanson?" A chubby, friendly looking girl with short, curly, black hair raised her hand.

Slowly Professor Flitwick made his way down the list, calling Sean O'Leary, one of the boys I'd followed earlier and Hao Linn, another boy in my house. He then called Sandy's name. I looked up and saw her bright blond ringlets bouncing as she raised her hand. She and Fiona sat together and Megan and Victoria were with them. Across the isle were the other Hufflepuff girls, Kayla Hanson, Harper Travers, and Tajel Zarri, all chatting quietly while they waited for Professor Flitwick to finish taking the attendance. I felt left out and lonely. I resolutely made up my mind to join Fiona, Sandy, Megan, and Victoria during the free period I had next.

Professor Flitwick spent the next few minutes going over the material we'd be covering throughout the year. Charms sounded like a difficult class, but everyone was excited when they saw Professor Flitwick make his quill and attendance sheet tango across his desk. Charms, he explained, was a very important class as we would be using simple charms all our lives. Finally he set us to practicing some elementary wand movements and learning some basic prefixes and suffixes we would be using a lot in charms. I was rather relieved he wasn't asking us to do magic just yet. I couldn't imagine what might happen if I tried to make my book bag tap dance or something, and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.

At last, Professor Flitwick assigned several words we had to learn and some more wand movements to practice and dismissed us. I hurried to pack my book and parchment away; I wasn't going to let Victoria and the others leave without me again. I walked with them to the library, trying to stay with the group. I didn't want to push myself on them, but I wanted to have company.

"Homework, on our first day?" Fiona was saying, "It's outrageous!"

"I know! What have you got, Tory?" Sandy asked, apparently addressing Victoria.

"McGonagall gave us a whole essay!" Victoria replied indignantly.

"It's not that bad. She said a _short_ essay, and besides the first chapter had loads to write about in it," Megan said. Personally, I agreed with her. I'd actually been rather excited about starting to learn magic and doing my very first bit of homework at Hogwarts. I wasn't about to voice this opinion, however, because from what I could see of Victoria's face, it wasn't a very popular one.

"Well, I for one think it's ridiculous that we should get any work at all on our very first day. I mean, if that's how it is on day one, what's it going to be like the rest of the year? We'll probably get massive amounts of homework!" Victoria exclaimed.

"Oh, look, it's Sarah!" Sandy squealed, imitating my accent. She giggled in a teasing way, as though she were only joking, but there was a hint of mockery in her voice.

"Oh, hello," said Victoria, rather coldly.

"What did you think of the classes?" Megan asked.

"They were alright," I said, trying to read everyone's faces, to see what _they_ thought of the classes so I could make sure I gave the right answer.

"Sarah blew up her match during transfiguration," Victoria said to Sandy, almost as though I wasn't there.

"Really, how did you manage that?" she asked.

"I don't know, I just kind of… messed up, I guess,"

"Oh," Sandy said, raising her eyebrows at Fiona in a superior way.

"Look, I'll just be going then, o.k.?" I said, tired of them making fun of me, and acting like I wouldn't notice. I wanted to get along with the people in my house. I wanted to get along with everyone! But they were making it so difficult, what was their problem!

"No!" Victoria said, suddenly, "Listen, I'm sorry. We weren't being mean on purpose or anything," I was so surprised that I didn't think to point out the fact that it was rather difficult in this circumstance to be mean by accident.

"Come on, we're going to the library to start this essay. You can come and help us out," she said. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of 'help us out', but I shrugged and followed them to the school library.

**Sorry for the incredibly short chapter. I'll update soon, though... I hope, lol. Anyway, thanks to all my reviewers! Btw, _Evenstar, _I'll answer your questions here instead of replying, just in case anyone else wants to know the answers. All of the spells mean things in Latin and the password to Ravenclaw is 'Knowledge is Power' in Latin. And as to Slytherins all being purebloods, in book5, the sorting hat is talking about the founders and it says "Slytherin took only pureblood wizards of great cunning just like him". Since then, i'm sure he's probably been forced to take half-bloods or else there'd be no one in his house, but in the story, Victoria, like me, just assumes that all Slytherins must be pureblood.**


	10. The Explosion

**Sorry if that last chapter sounded 'stuck' as Evenstar said, I know it was a bit short, I had a case of writer's block… I hope this is an improvement! Thanks for the reviews! Happy holidays to everyone!  
**

'Help us out' ended up not being too bad. I looked up facts from the first chapter, sometimes aided by Megan, and the others wrote them down. Afterward, we all looked over the list of important points that I'd found in the first chapter and wrote our essays about them. I ended up having to explain a lot of the concepts to Sandy, Fiona and Megan, all of whom didn't really even understand most of the words the book was using, but over all it wasn't horrible. I didn't have to actually write the essays for them and Victoria, for the most part, kept pretty silent the whole time, only dropping a nasty comment on me, someone else in the library or one of the teachers about every five minutes.

Near the end of the forty-five minute break, when we were about to start on our charms work, several first year Gryffindors entered the library, Angelina among them. When she noticed me, she came over to talk for a few minutes before the bell rang. We mostly just chatted about the lessons and the confusing castle, but it felt good to talk to someone who acted like I was a normal person.

Potions was just as bad as was rumored. Fred and George Weasley were telling anyone who'd listen that their brothers had sworn Professor Snape, the potions master, was the meanest teacher on Earth. They had tons of stories about all the times he'd made them drink terrible potions they'd concocted and the multitudes of points that he'd taken for things like forgetting to tie your shoelaces.

The minute we stepped into the dark, damp, gloomy dungeon, he'd lectured us on what a difficult and altogether complicated subject potions was. By the time he'd finished describing the many horrible effects an incorrectly brewed potion could have, I felt rather sick to my stomach. After look around the room, I had the distinct impression that I was not alone in my queasiness.

He then proceeded to quiz the class with a lot of hard, tedious, questions no one could have possibly picked up unless they'd memorized their potions book, cover to cover, word for word. As no one had, he soon grew exasperated and started taking points left and right. Thankfully I managed to escape the lesson unscathed, but Sandy was not so lucky. All the way up to lunch she complained incredulously about how she couldn't have possibly known the difference between bat's breath weed and garrion leaf.

It seemed impossible at that point that the day was only half over and by the time I fell into bed that night, I was exhausted. Apparently the old defense against the dark arts teacher was taking a year off to travel. Our new one hadn't seemed too awful, she'd talked about what we'd be covering this year and hadn't even asked us to take out our books at all which was lucky, because I still didn't have mine. I knew I should have told her at the first lesson, but I hadn't. I still had a lingering hope that I might be able to somehow get a copy before the next lesson.

When I woke the next morning, I was still ridiculously tired and I didn't at all feel like climbing out of bed to go wander the castle in search of my breakfast. Also, I realized meekly as I dressed, I had to complete my history of magic homework from the yesterday before first period today.

Finding the Great Hall proved even more difficult than it had been yesterday and I was soon hopelessly lost as I had no one to follow. Finally I managed to find the library and I barely had time to finish my summary of my previous knowledge of history when I was forced to wander off, without any breakfast, in the hopes of finding my first class before the bell rang.

History of Magic was located on fourth and a half floor. This made it rather difficult to locate as you had to go up the exact right staircase at exactly the right time, otherwise, there would be no fourth and half floor and you would find that the thirty-odd classrooms located on it had simply disappeared.

Finally I managed to locate classroom twenty in the History Wing. I was a minute or so late, but the old professor barely noticed. He was the most boring, utterly monotonous teacher I'd ever met. He was a ghost and according to the Weasley twins, one morning he'd simply got up from in front of the staffroom fire and left his body behind. His voice was dry and dull and droning and his main focus of the lessons seemed to be simply lecturing on and on about various wars and trials. Luckily he didn't seem to much care whether or not his classes were paying him any attention at all, and I got a good bit of my charms homework done during his lesson.

After History of Magic, I had transfiguration and I managed to follow the other Ravenclaws to this lesson which was on the third floor, near the door with Christopher the Curious, but not behind it. Professor McGonagall sat behind her desk, consulting the attendance sheet and checking people off as they entered.

She quickly called the class to order and passed out buttons that were to be turned into coins. As I nervously drew my wand from my back pack, I made sure to concentrate carefully on not letting it explode or do any serious damage.

"_Verto Lamnia_!" I said quietly, sweeping my wand in the circular motion as Professor McGonagall had demonstrated. Today, I almost immediately felt the ominous buzzing that meant my wand was about to do magic. Hastily I dropped it, without really thinking, I hoped it might stop the magic. Quite to the contrary, my wand let out a stream of gold and silver and with a loud whooshing sound, the button flew into the air and erupted into a fountain of knuts and sickles which for some reason seemed to be about ten times as heavy as your average knut or sickle and went smashing about with deafening thuds and crashes. Several hit students on the heads, making sickening noises and causing their victims to slump, unconscious against the nearest piece of furniture.

When at last, the chaos ended and the last of the enormous coins fell, nearly splitting one of the desks in half, it took a minute for the dust to settle, but once it had, the destruction it revealed was horrendous. The remaining students were hiding under the remaining desks and many of the delicate instruments and the tanks that had lined the shelves of the room were smashed. I was the only one left standing and I quickly tried to duck under a desk, but there were no upright ones left anywhere near me. Besides, it was already too late. I was in full view of Professor McGonagall who was gaping at me as though I had just completely destroyed her entire classroom with a hail storm of coins, which, as a matter of fact, I had.

"Do you have any idea, any idea at all, why or how you just did that?" She asked, apparently too stunned to start cleaning up just yet.

I shook my head, I was too embarrassed, shocked, and terrified to say anything. Professor McGonagall sighed, "The rest of you are dismissed, please try and use the remaining time of this lesson to do something productive. Now then…" She quickly revived the people on the floor who had not already stumbled to their feet, rubbing their heads and looking surprised. She suggested they might want to visit the hospital wing to get something for the swelling and then ushered the last of the concussed victims through the door. Quickly, she shut it and turned to face me.

"Now, tell me exactly what happened. We are going to try and figure out what is going on," she said.

I nodded weakly and began to explain. There was no use in lying, so I told her everything, wondering as I did whether you could get expelled for accidentally knocking out half your classmates and destroying an entire classroom.

Afterward she nodded briskly and began straightening the mangled chairs and desks as she spoke, "I want to see if you can reverse the damage you have done at all, try this, it is a simple spell for mending things… _reparo_!" she said, aiming her wand at a bottle of ink that had been smashed. "Now you try it," she said.

I nervously took the wand from my bag and pointed it at a book whose pages had been ripped out. "_R-reparo_!" I exclaimed. Nothing happened.

"Keep trying," Professor McGonagall said, as she began vanishing the coins.

"_Reparo_!" I said again, concentrating. "_Reparo_!" I said, imagining the book's ripped papers flying back together and reassembling themselves, "_reparo_!" I exclaimed for the third time, this time I could feel my wand humming slightly, growing warm in my hand, there was a fluttering sound like the wind rustling through the pages of a book and suddenly not only this book, but all the others around the room and all of the broken glass and debris from other objects immediately righted themselves and reassembled, even neater then they had been before the coin explosion. I was momentarily thrilled, but then I thought of why these things had broken in the first place and I felt embarrassed and worried again.

"Good," said Professor McGonagall, "At least now we know that you can execute constructive magic, as well as reeking havoc and creating chaos." I thought I saw the slightest of smiles crease her face, but then it was gone and she was back to business.

"Either you have an overenthusiastic wand or poorly controlled magic. I would suggest that you use magic as little as possible until you have gained mastery over either your power or your wand. It will be necessary to perform charms and spells during your classes, but I must warn you to be careful. Now, in the meantime, I'm going to try to arrange an extra lesson or two every week so that I, or possibly one of the other teachers can help you. I will inform you when I have managed to do so. Now why don't you go and join your classmates in the library and try to get some homework done, alright?"

"Yes, Professor," I said, keeping my eyes on the floor. I was pretty ashamed, but also very relieved that I had managed to escape all punishment. As I slowly wandered the castle, consulting my schedule and trying to figure out if I should even bother going to the library or common room, or if I might be better off just attempting to locate my next class, I marveled at how I had left the transfiguration disaster without even detention.

Luckily none of my other classes that day required the use of magic and though we were assigned homework out of our Defense Against the Dark Arts book, I didn't need it during class and I was pretty sure I could answer most of the questions without the book and those that I couldn't, I thought maybe I would find answers to in other library books. I wasn't sure why I was so reluctant to approach Professor Kowen about the unlocatable book, she seemed fairly nice, but I had an odd feeling about the book, which kept me from revealing that I did not have it.

The next day dragged by. I wandered the corridors for what seemed like hours until I finally found the Hufflepuff dormitory where I managed to follow a group of second years to breakfast. I was rather nervous about this, first because some of the Hufflepuffs gave me odd looks, apparently realizing I wasn't in their house, and second because the people I was following turned out to be a boy called Cedric Diggory, and his friends, who was very popular and also really cute.

When I finally made it to breakfast I realized that I had passed the door to the Great Hall twice when I was trying to find someone to follow. After that, the day went well enough until transfiguration. We had a double period and I was so nervous, I was sure that people could see me shaking.

Amazingly, however, we spent the class reviewing the homework and reading chapter two in our books. I was feeling so relieved that I almost let myself be separated from my classmates as we made our way down to the dungeons for potions. The last class of the day was charms during which we finally began to try magic.

I looked at the feather I was supposed to be levitating nervously. Finally I decided to pretend to do the charm. I screwed up my face and made convincing swishes with my wand, but I carefully kept the magic at bay, only saying pieces of the incantation and not maintaining the firm grip on my wand or the concentration which I had discovered was essential for magic.

By dinnertime I was feeling quite proud of myself and I was entirely looking forward to my astronomy lesson that night. Victoria, who had not finished the potions homework that was due the next day, was late getting up to the astronomy tower and Megan and I actually had a perfectly pleasant conversation while we set up our telescopes and pulled out our star charts. All in all it had been a fairly good third day of school…


	11. Brooms and Fireworks

**I am sosososososo sorry for not updating sooner! I hope anyone who might possibly have been reading before won't mind tooooo much and will still leave me a review… please? Lol… Hope it's worth the wait:**

The rest of the week swept by in a blur of homework and classes. In all of my charms and transfiguration classes I simply pretended to do magic and we still hadn't had to use our books in defense against the dark arts.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear and all of the people in my year were either complaining because they didn't have flying lessons until next week or celebrating because they had them this week. I was among the lucky few who got to amble out onto the muddy quidditch pitch for the very first flying lessons of the year. I was rather nervous because although I'd come from a wizarding family, I'd only ridden a broom once or twice and I was never very good at anything in gym.

But I considered myself lucky, some muggle-borns had never even held a broom in their lives… unless of course, they were sweeping with it.

So, we trekked out through the mud to a row of musty, ancient looking brooms that had been lined up on the grass. The teacher, Madam Hooch, quickly blew her whistle and called the class to order, instructing us to choose a broom and stand beside it. We spent a long time practicing holding the brooms and reciting proper safety policies.

Finally, after much inspection and criticism, Madam Hooch grudgingly allowed us to hold out a hand and command the broom 'up!' My broom shivered slightly and than rolled over. I tried again. Maybe one of the tail twigs had started to drift upward? Again I commanded, "Up!" At last the broom reluctantly drifted lazily into my outstretched hand. I glanced up and down the line of people.

Our lesson was with Gryffindor. Apparently they switched it up often, so next lesson we might end up flying with Hufflepuff or Slytherin. I rather hoped that this didn't happen. Fred and George had been warning everyone that Slytherin was the fiercest team on the quidditch pitch and first year Slytherins were often instructed to permanently injure anyone with any possible flying potential.

Angelina's broom had leapt into her hand immediately. So had Alicia's. I couldn't help but smile when I saw that Victoria's broom hadn't even moved. Good blood isn't everything! I looked around for Fred and George. They'd been playing quidditch for years. One of their brothers was supposed to be the best seeker the Gryffindor team had seen in a century or something. I was sure they'd have their brooms in their hands on the first try.

However, when I looked around, there was no trace of the vivid red hair that I had learned was a Weasley trademark.

"Look!" a clumsy Gryffindor boy called Kevin Towler called. He was pointing up toward the top of a tall beech tree on the edge of the lake. There, merrily using dead branches to bat a large grey stone back and forth were the Weasleys. Madam Hooch blasted her whistle, yelling shrilly for them to come down.

The Weasleys looked at each other, shrugged, dropped their sticks and the rock and swooped gracefully back down to Earth. Madam Hooch pounced on them, screaming about 'what could have happened' and 'complete disregard for rules'.

"We were just having a bit of fun…" Fred said meekly, cowering under her severe reprimand.

"A bit of fun? A bit of fun! I clearly told the class that they were not to mount their brooms until I had given them careful instructions and they had my full attention! You could have been killed! What would happen if two students under my supervision fell to their deaths?"

"We've been playing for years, ma'am! We wouldn't fall!" George cried indignantly.

"Nevertheless, rules are rules and you have broken a very important one regarding your own safety! I shall have to tell your head of house about this!"

We never did get to mount our brooms that class. Madam Hooch spent the remainder of the lesson telling the twins off and then lecturing us about the importance of following the rules and regulations of flying lessons. It seemed that Fred and George intended to keep the promise they'd made. Only the first week of school and they'd already severely broken a rule. Judging by their identical slightly smug and plotting looks as they left the quidditch pitch, they were just getting started.

When I marched back to the castle for lunch that afternoon, I was actually rather disappointed. I'd almost been looking forward to learning to fly once I'd gotten over my initial nerves. However, I was immediately cheered up when, muttering darkly about Fred and George ruining the lesson, Angelina and Alicia joined me for lunch.

We ate sitting on the steps in the outdoor courtyard. It was warm and a gentle breeze ruffled our hair. The sun was still shining beautifully and I couldn't have had a more pleasant afternoon.

Later that day as I wandered aimlessly down another twisting corridor, hoping to find my way either to the library or common room before dinner so I could catch up on homework, I heard a loud bang in the next hall. Several people screamed and a cloud of purple smoke billowed down the passage to meet me.

When I reached the place where the sound had come from, devastation almost worse than my attempts at transfiguration was revealed by the thinning smog. According to the witnesses, someone had let off a set of magical fireworks… inside.

"I'll bet anything Fred and George Weasley did this," someone behind me said. I turned to see Tajel Zarri, a Hufflepuff girl in my year, talking to Kayla Hanson. "I heard they blew up a tree at their flying lesson today!" she said. This was a slight exaggeration, but I was sure they'd be happy to do so if they had a chance.

"Well," said Kayla, "When they get caught, they're going to be in huge trouble!"

Tajel nodded earnestly. She was small and dark with huge expressive eyes. The worried, confused look on her face almost reminded me of Veruna in a funny sort of way. An unanticipated pang of homesickness swept over me and I was reminded that I needed to write my family and friends. I could see several teachers approaching and I decided I'd better make myself scarce.

I headed off, possibly in search of the common room, although if I found the owlery before I found my dormitory, I wouldn't mind just going there. As I wandered past another suit of armor scratching its head (it was the third I'd seen, although I might have been going in circles), someone called to me in the hallway.

"Sarah Starell?" Morgan Welsh-Linn, the fifth year who'd first showed us to our dormitory walked over to deliver her message, "Professor McGonagall would like to see you."

What had I done? For a second I panicked, I'd been completely caught off guard, but after a moment I realized that she'd probably managed to schedule some extra transfiguration lessons. Morgan saw my worried look and she quickly said, "You're not in trouble, it's nothing bad!"

"Oh good! Thanks," I said, I was about to go when I realized that I had no idea where McGonagall's office was.

I hesitated. Morgan, who had started to walk away, suddenly turned. As if she had read my mind, she said, "I'll bring you there. I remember how confusing the castle was for me in my first year."

I followed her gratefully, trotting to keep up with the tall prefect's stride. "So where exactly in the U.S. are you from?" she asked after a moment. She wasn't being rude or nosy like Victoria, she was simply curious; she was just trying to make conversation.

"The east coast, Boston, to be exact. Or Willow Park, have you ever heard of it?" I asked.

"Of course! It's one of the magic capitals of the world. I think it's one of the top ten biggest magical cities."

We wandered on in silence for a while, "Do you like the school so far?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, I suppose. It's awfully big, though."

"No kidding. I got horribly lost in my first week; I ended up in a forbidden broom closet or something…" Morgan was quiet for a moment while she mused about other adventures she'd had as a first year. "Are you getting on well with the others?" she asked.

"I came from Oceania. Fortland, the only magical city in New Zealand. My dad was English, so he wanted to send me to Hogwarts. You'd never know now that I wasn't born here, my family moved to England in my second year, but I remember how tough it was feeling different from everyone else."

I didn't really know what to say. Morgan's plight sounded almost exactly like mine. It was nice to have someone so sympathetic, but she was a fifth year now with a perfect English accent. Maybe I ought to convince my family to move… Even as I thought of the idea I knew it was impossible. We'd never have the money. Besides our life was back home, in America. And what about my friends? If I moved I'd never see them again, I'd never ever have any real friends ever again.

We'd reached McGonagall's office, but Morgan motioned for me to be quiet and hung back around the corner. "Really!" McGonagall was saying, "Those Weasley twins! It's their first week in school for Merlin's sake! Haven't they wreaked enough havoc without destroying half the Defense Against the Dark Arts Department?"

"Shall I get them, Minerva?" Professor Kowen asked.

"Yes. Tell them they are to come to me immediately!" Professor Kowen swept from the room and walked down the hall away from us.

"I haven't seen anything like this since Sirius Black and James Potter attended this school!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

"Potter and Black beat Fred and George Weasley by one day! Blew up the third floor bathroom on the fifth day of school!" Professor Flitwick squeaked.

"I can't understand it! Their brother Percy is an absolute angel and Bill was a wonderful student! Even Charlie Weasley never did anything like this!"

"Give them time, Minerva, and I'm certain they'll give even Potter and Black a run for their money!" Flitwick said, chuckling, before following after Professor Kowen.

"I certainly hope not…" McGonagall muttered. Morgan was shaking with silent laughter.

"I've never seen McGonagall that upset! I hope those Weasley brothers aren't expelled, Hogwarts could do with a little chaos now and then, I think," she whispered.

"You're a prefect!" I exclaimed, aghast, "Can't you get- I don't know, demoted or something for saying that?"

"No!" Morgan said, laughing, "That's the nice thing about being a prefect, no one ever suspects you of anything." Glancing back toward McGonagall's office she added, "Oh, you'd better go in now."

I nodded, "Thanks…"

She smiled, "Anytime!" Nervously, I turned and entered Professor McGonagall's office.

"Hello?" she said angrily, then looked up, "Oh, it's you… Miss Starell… Yes, well, I've asked around and Professor Kowen has agreed to work with you on your magical techniques. She'd like to meet with you twice a week, Tuesday after dinner and Friday during your 2:00 free. Will that be alright?"

"Yes Professor," I said.

"Good… Professor Kowen will report to me on your progress and you will demonstrate what you have learned during my classes."

"Thank you, Professor," I said as I turned to go.

"And Sarah," she said, calling me back, "You will work hard, will you not? Practice often?"

"Yes, of course…"

"Good. You may go." I left the room feeling oddly nervous and confused. I felt as if I'd missed something, as if there was something more to our conversation that I couldn't quite grasp. It was the strangest feeling and I had no idea what it could possibly be about.

**Hope you enjoyed! Please, please, leave me a review! I'm sorry for taking so long, I've been really busy with school and I kind of got caught up in another story I was working on… I know, excuses, excuses… Well, I'll stop chattering and let you review!**


	12. Mysteries and Opportunities

Monday was a good day because for the very first time I actually made it to breakfast on time without getting lost once. I wasn't so lucky getting to my first class however. I had transfiguration and I nearly got stuck in one of the disappearing steps on the way there. The class itself didn't go too badly. We had the written part of a test to see what we had learned our first week and I wasn't required to do any magic.

I'd enjoyed all of my herbology classes so far. They didn't include much magic, but were still quite interesting. Today we were potting snapping rose bushes. Victoria, much to my delight, sustained a nasty bite and was sent to the hospital wing. Megan, who seemed to be pretty hopeless at everything by herself, came and joined me at my rose bush. She didn't help much and whenever she tried to she ended up getting in the way, but it was still nice to talk to someone instead of working on my own as I usually did.

That afternoon, I managed to find my way back to the glowing hall of stained glass where the Ravenclaw dormitory was located more quickly than usual. We'd had an absolutely dismal potions lesson. Apparently a boy in Gryffindor, Kenneth Towler, had accidentally exploded his cauldron and sprayed the frog guts he'd been working with everywhere. Snape was in a fowl mood and the dungeon smelled even worse than usual.

I had just taken out my latest assignment and was busy procrastinating by staring into space and pretending to be thinking, when I saw the notice board. On a pale blue piece of parchment, magically stuck to the board was the headline 'Auditions- Next Friday!' This immediately caught my eye. I loved performing; being on stage, singing, dancing… you name it! My grandfather, the one who'd gone to Hogwarts, actually, had been an actor. I could remember going to see him in plays when I was a little girl.

He'd first got me interested in acting. Seeing him up there, in the lights, woke something up in me. I'd been in all the school plays when I was little and I'd done muggle community theatre as well as some freelance stuff with a magical troupe.

I leapt to my feet, shoving the paper on moonstones that I was supposed to be reading back into my bag. 'Hogwarts's two-hundredth annual fall musical! The Warty Players will be presenting _The Sound of Magic_…' Details followed about what should be prepared as an audition piece and rehearsal times and performance dates. I scanned the page quickly making a mental note of all the information. My mind was already whirring with possible pieces I could use for the audition. I quickly wrote my name on the provided place below the text. The list was completely blank so far… odd… but less competition, I supposed.

When I'd finished scrawling my name, year, and house I turned to go. Suddenly however my name faded and disappeared. I turned back, staring blankly at the parchment, wondering where my writing had gone. I was just about to put my quill to the page again when words formed in my own bright lilac ink on the notice. 'Thank you Sarah Starell. We look forward to seeing you on Friday the twelfth! –the Warty Players'.

I was so excited that I nearly forgot my promise of the day before to write to my friends and family until history of magic that afternoon when I was so bored I had nothing else to think about. I'd tried taking notes in history of magic but Professor Binns' wheezy, droning voice made me yawn so much that I quickly lost track of what he was saying. I'd raised my hand to ask him a question, but after twenty minutes my arm got so tired that I forgot what I'd meant to ask him in the first place.

I took advantage of the opportunity to write a quick letter to my parents and my sister.

_Dear Mom, Dad, and Anna_

_Hogwarts is great! We've been sorted into houses- I'm in Ravenclaw. Ravenclaw is supposed to be really smart! The other girls in my house are o.k. and I have a friend in Gryffindor named Angelina. I'm not so good at transfiguration…_I chose not to mention the explosions. Hopefully I'd get better and they'd never have to know that I'd done less than brilliantly at magic.

…_but I like herbology and our defense against the dark arts teacher seems nice. Speaking of defense against the dark arts, you never did find that book, did you? Well send it along A.S.A.P. if you do locate it. I've just signed up for _The Sound of Magic_, the school play. I'm thinking of singing that song I did for the audition for _Warlocks and Dolls_, remember the one? Either that or one from _Camelot_, but that's muggle theatre so it might not be good for this. Anyway, I hope all is well! Anna, you'll have to tell me how things are back in school! Love you and miss you!_

_-Sarah_

I lay down my quill, satisfied. I would give the letter to Regal tonight. He'd fly to a post office on the coast where a special long-distance owl would take over. Regal would stay there until someone could arrange for him to be taken to Willow Park by floo powder. I'd have to find the Owlery later so I could send letters to Veruna, Sylvia, and Camille.

The next day I woke feeling a bit nervous about my upcoming magic lesson after dinner with Professor Kowen. I tried putting it in the back of my head; there was nothing to worry about after all, but nerves kept bubbling up in my stomach during the day. Nothing of great importance happened during my classes. I didn't manage to blow anything up but I didn't manage to do any magic either.

I found the sheet music for _Camelot_ and a book of monologues I'd gotten for my last birthday. I also found a stone tower full of rustling, hooting, owls which I assumed was the school owlery. I quickly addressed three letters to Camille at Spelladry Academy, Sylvia at the Susan B. Anthony School of Magic and to Veruna at the Pari Ghar school in Nepal. I asked all of them if I'd see them at Christmas time and how their schools were and whether they'd made friends. I rather selfishly hoped they'd been having just as much trouble as me when it came to friends.

I felt incredibly lonely as I watched the three owls swoop off into the mild afternoon sky. I watched until they disappeared from view and then turned and made my way back down the narrow steps.

I didn't feel very hungry at dinner. I forced myself to choke down some food, trying to convince myself that everything would be fine.

I wasn't exactly sure what I was nervous about. I tried to pinpoint the feeling as I set off in search of defense against the dark arts department. It wasn't about the lesson being with Professor Kowen. Nor was it about the possibility of exploding something again. It was just a vaguely ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Professor Kowen was sitting behind her desk correcting papers when I came in. "Good evening Miss Starell. Now, as you know, these lessons have been arranged to help you keep your magic in check. Let's begin by seeing what you can do. Would you please try and transfigure this beetle for me?" I nodded and drew my wand from my pocket.

"_Mutatiomedis_!" I carefully articulated, bringing my wand in a circular motion and then jabbing it at the small black beetle scuttling across the desk. Nothing happened.

We'd learned the spell for transfiguring beetles into small black pebbles during class, but as I hadn't recently attempted any magic, I'd never properly tried working magic on living things.

"Try again. It's more of a swish than a jab," Professor Kowen instructed, watching me carefully.

Again I brought my wand around and swished it downward at the bug. "_Mutatiomedis_!"

My wand tip glowed, the beetle hummed, my hand shook and with a sudden whoosh of green flames the beetle erupted into a pile of small black pebbles with razor sharp edges that went pelting about the classroom.

"_Protego_," Professor Kowen said, flicking her wand deftly at the ceiling. The pebbles bounced away from us, ricocheting off the walls.

"_Evanesco_," she said, apparently unperturbed. "Good we're making progress!"

I decided it would probably be rude to ask in what way this was progress, so I just half-smiled and awaited my next instruction.

"Now, when you attempt to perform magic, what exactly do you feel before the magic starts working?"

"Well… Sort of a… humming, I suppose," I said weakly. I wasn't exactly sure what she was asking me, but I seemed to have given the right answer because she smiled and nodded.

"Go on, what else?"

"A… a tingling, and a kind of… well, warmth…" I hesitated, and then added, "Professor, I don't think it's me that's doing the magic. I mean… I know it's me saying the incantation… but the actual magic part, I've got no idea what I'm doing and I feel like I haven't got any control. If you asked me what my wand was about to do and what degree of damage it'd cause, I'd have no clue."

Professor Kowen raised her eye brows, "Well, that's interesting… but still, the wand chooses the wizard, right? So, this wand must be meant for you and only you. There must be some way of controlling it… And some of this may still actually be your doing…" Professor Kowen stared off into space for a moment, apparently thinking to herself.

"Well, why don't you try again? Let's attempt some charms work. Would you please levitate this feather?"

I nodded and gripped my wand tightly. Professor Kowen hadn't actually given me any advice yet. I still had no idea how I was supposed to be containing and executing magic in a non-destructive way…

I gulped and brought my wand in the upward swishing movement and then flicked it down at the feather. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" I said. Slowly the feather floated upward as if blown by the breeze. I was doing it! The feather was levitating and nothing was- Suddenly my wand burned in my hand and the feather was smoked out of existence by a cloud of crimson sparks.

"Er… sorry," I said, watching the ash drift slowly downward onto Professor Kowen's desk.

"No, no, no! This is good… I'm sure it is! If you can only manage to control this magic it will be incredibly powerful! I really think we're making progress! Now just let me think…" She surveyed me carefully. I waited.

"Could I see your wand, please?" I glanced down at my wand, still clutched tightly in my right hand. Little puffs of pearly white flames burst from the tip. I started to hand it to her, but suddenly I hesitated. For some incredibly strange reason, the last thing on earth I wanted to do was give my wand to Professor Kowen. My fingers tightened around the handle and I pulled my wand back. Desperately I was trying to think of some way to keep the wand from Professor Kowen, while at the same time, my logic and common sense were kicking in and wondering why I was so reluctant to hand it over.

"What kind of wood is it?" she was asking.

"Oh, er… Black palm," I answered.

"Aha! And the core?"

"Unicorn hair."

"Ah, a risky combination… Perhaps it should be looked at by its maker. I'm assuming it's not one of Ollivander's?"

"No, I bought it back home, in the U.S."

"Hmmm, you might want to get it looked at. Though, then again, you might not have half the power with a different wand… And it could be costly to get a replacement," she added as an afterthought.

Abruptly Professor Kowen reached out and seized my wand. Her hand flashed out to take it so suddenly I barely noticed until she already had it in her clutches. Rapidly she swept it upward, said an incantation, and aimed it at the ceiling.

A flock of pelicans erupted from the end. There was a great squawking and flapping for a few seconds before Professor Kowen retrieved her own wand and managed to vanish them.

"Strange. I suppose it really is the wand then, and not you… but even so, you must be the only one who can find a way to control it or it wouldn't have chosen you…"

I watched the last few feathers my wand was coughing up drift to the ground. "Avis, the bird spell," she explained, "It's supposed to conjure a flock of canaries or sparrows or the like. Certainly not… er, pelicans," she said, picking up a feather and inspecting it perplexedly.

"No matter… you'll just have to keep working. Do magic in your classes and try to concentrate on what the wand is doing. As you saw, the magic I performed was not entirely satisfactory, but at least nothing exploded…"

"But… Professor, I'm still not entirely sure what I can do to make magic work…"

"Tell me something, Miss Starell, are you pureblood? That is to say, are your parents of wizarding descent?"

I was so shocked and taken aback by the question that I didn't answer immediately. "Well… no. My mother is a muggle, but I don't see what that's got to do with-"

Professor Kowen was scrutinizing me through narrowed eyes. Suddenly however, as if brought to her senses, she held up a hand, "Sorry, I apologize for asking such a personal question. It's just that, not having been raised around magic, some children find it difficult to adjust when they first come to school. I was just wondering if that might have affected your magical ability. Well… I'll see you Friday then, shall I?" she said cheerily.

"What? Oh, right. Yes. Thank you." I took my wand and exited the classroom. I was glad to be gone, but my mind was having trouble absorbing what had just happened. She'd covered well, but Professor Kowen had most certainly had a point to asking me about my parentage.

What could it possibly mean?

**A/N**: **I hope you enjoyed it! If you leave me a review, I'll update faster ****lol****! Thanks for reading... **


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